“ONE MAN MUSEUM” AT PALMERSTON NORTH

Northern Advocate, 1 December 1936, Page 7

“ONE MAN MUSEUM” AT PALMERSTON NORTH

The fruits of one man’s lifetime effort be it directed in specialised or commonplace directions, have a fascination for all. When Mr W. M. Just died at the age of 75, he left behind one of the greatest collections of antiquaries that a single collector has ever amassed in New Zealand. Today they are arrayed in the form of a “one-man museum” at the home of his son, Mr A. W. Just, College Street, Palmerston North.'

A tune on, the symphonion, forerunner of the player-piano or pianola, is just the thing to take a spectator’s mind back to the days when most of the exhibits in this antiquarial repository were as up-to-date as a televisor. In appearance the symphonion is a cabinet, like a corpulent grandfather clock,, set on spindleshank limbs. The most delightful of melodies can be played on it—polkas, marches, waltzes, and even minuets that still intrigue and to which'Stately madams in full dresses and pompous breeched gallants once danced.

More Convenient. In one respect the symphonion is more convenient than the . average gramophone—it plays six records;. On end. The music is that of a series of bells. The records are large, flat, round units of light sheet-steel, perforated in the same fashion as the sheet music of the player-piano. They are mounted six at a time horizontally on a bar! A few easy turns On the side handle and the symphonion is away on a wave of musical sounds. As one record, automatically transported to an upper bar .when it is first set in motion; is completed, it transfers of its own accord to the lower bar and another is swung up to the higher bar for playing.

Compact encyclopaedic information is represented in a great illustrated chronological and geographical chart designed in the nineteenth century to “assist the mind in clearly fixing along the stream of time events of world history... It ranges from the Biblical beginning of creation, with a handsome Adam and seductive Eve and an evil Cain attacking Abel' to some effect, to the year 1900. For instance, at the year 1260, a sketch of the first magic lantern with printed notes of the inventor, is reproduced. The map is on two upright rollers set 6ft apart and operated by a handle, which draws the map along the wall. An introductory note says that, among others, the works of the Greek historian Herodotus, the Athenian Thucydides, the Romans Livy, Tacitus and Pliny, and, the_ English Edward Gibbon were draWri on for material for the chart.

Knicknacks. Knicknacks there are innumerable. For instance, a carved ivory ball of most intricate design in the Chinese section which, only. 2in. in diameter, has 16 similar balls inside it. Outstandingly handsome is a pair of flamingo feathers —pink and white—and sets of cloisonne ware and satsuma china.

The collection of silver pieces is numerous and outstanding. Coins of 48 countries include a series of 20 silver British rhonetary units from a penny and l|d (1843) to £1- (1837). There is an Irish half-crown with the King’s head, much in contrast with the independent tendency of presentday Free State Irish coinage. An English dictionary and a New Testament, each" three-eighths of an inch in depth, and no larger on the face than a postage stamp, are among things to catch the eye. The collection of weapons is excellent and varied. For instance, there are. the Indian kukrie or scalping and beheading knives, with decorations of human hair. Days when people, today free men, were treated as cattle are brought to mind by the sjambok or slave-whip of the Boers and the corded whip used by early Spaniards on the native slaves of South America.

Almost Terrifying

The thought of being bled by leeches makes the modern man shudder, but an instrument in this museum which preceded the leech in the bloodletting side of medicine is almost terrifying. It is called a cupping set. Set in a small copper case, the length of a wooden match-bax and twice the depth, are 15 sharp blades in three rows .of five. The' method of operation was to place the box on the person to be bled and then press a lever which forced the blades an eighth of an inch into the body of the patient. Pleasant contrasts with the cupping set are a lover’s chair and an Indian needlewoman's workbox of 15 pieces inlaid in ivory and silver. These are just, a , few. of the , hundieds of exhibits in the “one-man museum,” selected because they may appeal most to the average man. The enthusiast, the delver into the past, and others “museum-minded” could spend hours there and still have much to see.